A visit to Wembley used to be a special day. In many respects it still is, especially if you've just seen your side win an FA Cup semi-final.

Apart from everything else, it means another visit is imminent, for the FA Cup final…or is it?

After last weekend’s comfortable victory against Southampton, Chelsea will now be looking forward to their 13th FA Cup final. So should the supporters, after all the FA Cup final should still represent one of the best days in any football fans calendar.

But for the first time in my Chelsea supporting memory many, myself included, are questioning whether to go or not.

Chelsea season ticket holders have recently received their season ticket renewal forms. This means they will need to fork out around £900 for the privilege of watching Chelsea week in week out next season. The deadline is May 11. For those on average or below average earnings this is a big drain on resources.

Read More

To be honest I have struggled to afford this for the last few years but have somehow always found a way to continue my relationship with the club I fell in love with years ago.

The first obstacle to attending this year’s FA Cup final is without doubt the cost of the tickets. Much has been written about this issue already, but suffice to say that this season’s FA Cup final ticket prices are nothing short of scandalous.

The semi-final prices were bad enough, priced at £30; £45; £65 and £80. For the final itself we are now expected to pay £45; £70; £115 and £145. Blatant profiteering by the FA who are singularly taking advantage of supporters knowing they will do anything they can to attend their club’s big day. Pointedly at the top end this represents 16% of the cost of my season ticket.

On top of this, Chelsea will sell tickets based on the accumulation of Loyalty Points. While a 28,000 allocation means that most, if not all season ticket holders will be able to get a ticket, how many of the cheaper tickets will be left if you are at the back of the Loyalty Point queue?

Read More

Now, I will be buying a ticket just for me, but what happens if you are a father with two kids, who have thus far been to every game in Chelsea’s cup run. Naturally you’d want to go to the final too, right? Well if you do you could potentially be looking at a bill of £391.90 for tickets. On top of that you have travel costs; food and drink (spectacularly expensive at Wembley) and a programme. The bill could be well over £500; £500 plus for an FA Cup final at Wembley.

You can see why many supporters are questioning whether or not they can afford to go to the final; an issue no doubt exacerbated by having to pay for the season ticket at the same time.

Wembley Stadium. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

One solution mooted on Twitter, was for the respective clubs to use their prize money for the final to subsidise the supporter’s ticket costs. The winners will get £1.8m and the runners up £900k. To reduce the ticket prices to a reasonable £20 for a 25,000 allocation would cost the clubs £500k each. For clubs like Man Utd and Chelsea, this is a drop in the ocean. Let’s not forget they will not have budgeted for this windfall having not forecast reaching the final at the start of the season.

While this is a noble idea, it is sure to fall on deaf ears at the clubs, after all ‘Turkey’s don’t vote for Christmas’.

Read More

On the assumption that you fork out the money to go then you should be set up for an excellent days’ football in the greatest venue in English football.

Well not if the semi-final was anything to go by.

It is true that many of my peer group like to meet up in a pub for a few drinks before the game and this has always been part of our match day ritual.

Yes, we could have heeded the advice to get to Wembley an hour before kick-off, but we still felt we turned up in good time to see the start of the match. If I had arrived at Stamford Bridge ten minutes before kick-off I would not have missed a thing.

At Wembley I had to wait in a queue for thirty minutes to get in. Every Chelsea gate was like this at kick-off. It beggars belief that in 2018 we can’t get supporters in to a stadium more quickly than they appear to do so at Wembley. As a consequence I missed the first 20 minutes of the match. If I do that in the final it could cost me £35.

Read More

Then we have the issue of atmosphere. Partly due to the pricing and mainly due to Chelsea’s reluctance to facilitate the vocal elements of Chelsea's support to congregate behind the goal, we had the usual Wembley farce of those who wish to stand, get behind the team and make a noise, battle (sometimes literally) with those who wish to remain seated. This is of course compounded by the usual aggressive Wembley stewarding insisting in no uncertain terms that supporters remain seated throughout.

Man Utd have put some thought in to this for the final by selling tickets for a ‘singing section’ and providing designated ‘family areas’ to enable younger and older supporters to sit in the most suitable areas. It’s not rocket science is it and it would make a difference to the atmosphere and quell any potential trouble. All Chelsea needs to do is earmark the area behind the goal provisionally for Matthew Harding Lower and Shed Lower season ticket holders.

(Image: Stephen Pond - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

Of course the worst part of the Wembley experience comes at the end. While I understand the reasons for it, the one hour queue from the stadium to Wembley Park tube is interminable. As a result it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get back to Victoria. As it happened I had to miss the usual post-match drinking but had I been able to, nearly two hours to get to the pub and celebrate with my mates is something of a ‘Karma Killer’.

Read More

There remains an outside chance that Chelsea may use Wembley as a temporary home while Stamford Bridge is redeveloped. However, the news that Fulham owner Shahid Khan is set to buy the stadium from the FA might make it more difficult for the Blues to do that. Please Chelsea, think again and do not consider it.

Faced with four years aggravation getting in and out of Wembley, a soulless atmosphere to go with it and no convenient pre and post-match drinking; I hate to admit it, but I will call it a day as far as season ticket renewals go if that happens.

On the plus side, at least I’ll be able to afford a ticket to the Cup Final in that time, that’s if I can actually get one of course.